Our History: Rape trial comes to shocking end

For the past two weeks, this space has recounted the story of one of the most heinous crimes in area history: the rapes of two teenagers on July 7, 1865.

The girls, Ann and Bridget Burns, lived in Greenbush, as a part of the City of Rensselaer was then known. Out picking berries on a summer afternoon, they were assaulted by four men. They quickly identified two of them - Nathaniel Majorry, 40, and his son, Louis, 20 - who were arrested. The other two suspects disappeared.

The men who raped the girls had carried guns and threatened to kill them. Traumatized by the assault and the warnings, Ann nevertheless demonstrated great bravery. After the rapists left the scene of their crime, Ann carried her younger sister, who had fainted and was bleeding, to a nearby home and told what had happened.

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Her account was quickly relayed to the police, who arrested some suspicious men. Ann agreed to see if any of the men rounded up by the police were the rapists. Just hours after the crime, she stood in front of the older Majorry and picked him out as her attacker.

During testimony at a preliminary hearing just two weeks after the crime, Ann grew faint. The defense attorney took that moment to wonder if the girls "did not make all the resistance possible" during the rapes.

Support for Ann's account came from another witness, a German woman who had seen four men in the area of the crime. She pointed to Nathaniel as being one of them.

But some people in Greenbush, rallying around their hometown, theorized that the perpetrators were really "ruffians" from Albany, not locals. When the defense presented its case at the preliminary hearing, Nathaniel's sister-in-law seemed to back up that theory. She said that he had not worn clothing that day that matched the girls' description.

When the preliminary hearing came to an end on August 5, 1865, the judge "deemed the evidence sufficient to hold the prisoners," reported The Albany Argus. Bail was set at $5,000 for each of the two defendants.

In an unusual span for the times, well more than two years would pass before the case finally came to trial in the Court of Sessions in Troy on March 16, 1868. District Attorney Lottridge appeared for the prosecution, while the accused men were represented by W.A. Beach and E.L. Fursman.

A newspaper predicted: "The trial promises to be a protracted one." It wasn't. Eleven days later, the trial came to a shocking conclusion: The Majorrys were acquitted.

The Troy Times reported that "the case turned entirely upon the identity of the prisoners....Four men dressed in the manner described by the girls...crossed the ferry at Greenbush to Albany on the evening of [the rape]. The jury undoubtedly came to the conclusion that the unfortunate victims were mistaken in the identity of the ravishers."

Greenbush residents who believed that visitors from Albany did it were vindicated.

In a 180-degree shift from the newspaper accounts of 1865, which said Nathaniel had "a bad reputation for morals" and labeled his son as "a fellow of low habits," the Times declared them both to be "respectable men."

While the Majorrys went on their way, Ann and Bridget were left with memories of their day of terror.